I have a Demon Hunter alt, and I was interested in comparing Hungering Arrow runes. Specifically, which rune should make it do the most damage on average? I saw on average because it can pierce and thus get you multiple hits in. Even if you're firing at one target it can pierce, turn around, and hit them again!
So which of the runes is best?
- Base: 115% damage, 35% pierce
- Puncturing Arrow: 115% damage, 50% pierce
- Cinder Arrow: 150% damage, 35% pierce
- Shatter Shot: 115% damage, 35% pierce, pierce means splitting into 3 arrows (that can all pierce too?)
- Devouring Arrow: 115% damage, 35% pierce, each pierce means +70% damage
- Spray of Teeth: This one depends on your crit percentage and doesn't help with single mobs, so I'll ignore it
My gut says that Puncturing Arrow or Cinder Arrow are best on average, doing 150% damage up-front, or doing 115% more often do to 50% pierce. But I'm not good enough at statistics to back this up… maybe Devouring Arrow is better mathematically over time.
Plus, I haven't unlocked Devouring Arrow yet, so I don't know if all 3 arrows can continue to pierce. For example, if there's one enemy and it pierces, do all 3 sub-arrows hit the mob again?
Best Answer
Shatter Shot has the best overall output.
The expected average damage outputs per use (calculated up to the 10th piercing) are:
You could see the breakdown on this document.
Note: The dual interpretation on the Devouring Arrow rune (multiplicative, i.e. the damage on the 3rd pierce is 1.7*1.7*BASE, or additive which would be (1.7+0.7)*BASE) comes from this other answer. The answer states that the additive interpretation is the correct one.